Finishing strips



April 14, 1970 a. M. THOMAS 3,505,773

FINISHING STRIPS 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed March 8, 1968 7 m f B b \\\\.\\\\\\\\\\\\\\UW\\\\\\\\\\ \\\\\\\\\-\\\\\\\\\\\\\\H\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ w z 0 5 4 2 7 z A m a J 7 7 7 7 m 1 1 April 14, 1970 G. M. THOMAS 3,505,773

FINISHING STRIPS Filed March 8, 1968 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 United States Patent 3,505,773 FINISHING STRIPS Garry M. Thomas, Belbroughton, England, assignor to Monoclad Systems Limited, Stourbridge, England, a British company Filed Mar. 8, 1968, Ser. No. 711,740 Claims priority, application Great Britain, Mar. 10, 1967, 11,356/67 Int. Cl. E04f 19/04 U.S. Cl. 52-717 4 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE This invention relates to finishing strips that is to the decorative and protective elements of longitudinally, extensive form such as may be used as skirtings, which are customarily fitted along the lower edges of walls inside buildings, or as architraves, which may surround door or window openings, or as strips serving to conceal or protect the joints between adjacent panels such as the panels lining the roofs of caravans.

Hitherto is has been usual to make finishing strips from wood for the purposes outlined above. The disadvantages of wooden strips are that the heads of the nails or screws by means of which they are secured must normally be concealed or masked after installation, and that they must normally be decorated, as by being painted or varnished, after installation. The object of the invention is to provide a finishing strip such that these difficulties can be overcome or reduced, and which can be readily manufactured and sold at a price comparable with that of wooden finishing strips.

According to the present invention there is provided a finishing strip comprising a longitudinally extensive element made from a flexible and resilient material and having first and second protruding portions, which in use project outwardly from the surface to which the strip is secured, with a longitudinally extensive groove between them, the base of the groove being so positioned that in use it lies against the surface, and being such that headed fastenings can extend through the base into the surface, the mouth of the groove being at least substantially closed so that when the finishing strip is in use the heads of the fastenings are at least substantially entirely concealed within the groove, but the arrangement being such that during installation of the finishing strip the mouth of the groove can be opened sufliciently to enable the fastenings to be inserted and their heads to enter the groove, the mouth of the groove at least substantially closing after the heads have entered the groove due to the innate flexibility and resilience of the finishing Strip.

It is to be understood that the finishing strip may have one or more further protruding portions and one or more further grooves, which may be similar to the protruding portions and groove referred to above. The additional groove or grooves would be valuable with relatively wide finishing stirps, and would normally be parallel to the groove previously reefrred to.

The finishing strip is preferably formed from a plastics material, and is preferably a unitary extrusion which may conveniently have a relatively thin, uniform wall-thickness. Unplasticized P.V.C. is a suitable material from which to make the finishing strip as it is relatively inexpensive and can be used to make a finishing strip which does not need to be painted or otherwise treated before or after installation. Other plastics materials, such as butyrates and acrylics may also be used. It would also be possible for the finishing strip to be made from resilient sheet metal strip, such as stainless steel strip.

The invention will now be more particularly described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a section through a skirting embodying the invention, in the process of being installed,

FIGURE 2 is similar to FIGURE 1 but shows the skirting after it has been installed,

FIGURE 3 is a section through an architrave embodying the invention, and

FIGURE 4 is a section through another form of skirting embodying the invention.

The skirting shown in FIGURES 1 and 2 is made as a unitary extrusion of unplasticized P.V.C. and is formed with a thin, uniform wall-thickness. The skirting comprises upper and lower protruding portions 10 and '11 respectively the upper portions 10 comprising a horizontal top panel 12 which in use extends outwards from the wall 13, and a vertical front panel 14 depending from the top panel 12 and smoothly connected to it by an outwardly convex connecting part. The height of the front panel 14 is about twice the Width of the top panel 12. The lower protruding portion 11 comprises a lower vertical front panel 15, similar in height to the upper front panel 14 and in the same plane as the upper front panel, and a horizontal bottom panel 16 extending rearwards to the wall 13 from a level a short way above the lower edge of the lower front panel 15, the rear edges of the two horizontal panels 12 and 16 lying in the same vertical plane. A flange 17, rather thinner in section than the remainder of the extrusion, extends downwardly and forwardly from the lower edge of the lower front panel 15. When unstressed, as in FIGURE 2, it is at 45 to the vertical. The lower edge of the upper front panel 14 and the upper edge of the lower front panel 15 lie on either side of the mouth of a long longitudinally extensive groove 18 bounded at the back by a vertical planar fixing panel 19, which is in the same vertical plane as the rear edges of the top and bottom panels 12 and 16 and by upper and lower side panels 20 and 21 respectively which extend forwards from the upper and lower edges respectively of the fixing panel 19 and touch each other at their forward edges as shown in FIGURE 2. A forward convex connecting portion 22 joins the forward edge of the upper side panel 20 to the lower edge of the upper front panel 14 and a simi lar connecting portion 23 joins the forward edge of the lower side panel 21 to the upper edge of the lower front panel 15.

When the skirting is to be installed it is located with the rear edges of the top and bottom panels 12 and 16 against the wall 13, and the lower edge of the flange 17 against the adjacent floor 24. The mouth of the groove 18, where the side panels 20 and 21 touch each other, is opened slightly as shown in FIGURE 1. This may be conveniently effected with the aid of a wedge (not shown) with the lips 22, 23 defining a substantially V-shaped guiding groove for the wedging means. As the mouth is opened the upper and lower protruding portions 10 and 11 move upwards and downwards respectively, the flange 17 flexing as shown in FIGURE 1 to accommodate the downward movement of the lower portion 11. Nails 25 or like headed fastenings are inserted into the groove 18 and driven through the fixing panel 19 which lies against the wall 13. The nails 25 or like fastenings may be driven into the wall 13 with the aid of a suitable tool having a shank no wider than the head of the fastenings. Although holes may be preformed in the fixing panel 19 for receiving the fastenings this is not normally necessary. The heads of the nails 25 or other fastenings abut the front face of the fixing panel 19 as shown in FIGURE 2 and are housed in the groove 18. After the fastenings are in place the mouth of the groove 18 is allowed to close again due to the innate flexibility and resilience of the material from which the skirting is formed which biases the forward ends of the side walls toward each other. When the skirting has been installed, as shown in FIG- URE 2, it is in a state in which it is substantially not stressed.

The skirting has been described as it is after normal installation, but it is to be understood that the skirting may also be used in other positions and may in some instances be installed so that it extends vertically rather than horizontally. Further, the skirting may be such that before installation the fixing panel 19 is a short distance in front of the plane containing the rear edges of the top and bottom panels 12 and 16 so that during installation the skirting is resiliently distorted to some extent with the result that the top and bottom panels 12 and 16 are resiliently urged into engagement with the wall 13.

Typical skirtings of the kind shown in FIGURES l and 2 are about two and a half inches high and protrude half an inch from the wall. The thickness of the material from which they are made is about one twentieth of an inch.

The architrave shown in FIGURE 3 is largely similar to the skirting shown in FIGURES l and 2, and similar parts are given the same reference numerals. The upper front panel 14 of the skirting is replaced in the architrave by a narrower panel 26; the bottom panel 16 extends from the lower edge of the lower front panel 15 rather than from a short way above the lower edge thereof; and the flange 17 is omitted.

As stated above the skirting and architrave are made as extrusions. In one method of manufacture the strip is extruded in the'shape shown in FIGURE 2 or FIG- URE 3 as the case may be, but the mouth of the groove 18 is initially integrally closed and is subsequently slit to enable it to be opened. Although the mouth would normally be slit during manufacture it is within the scope of the invention to provide a strip in which the mouth is closed and has to be slit or otherwise opened by the person installing it. In another method the strip is extruded with the angles between each of the upper and lower side panels 20 and 21, and the fixing anel 19 less acute than the angles illustrated, so that the mouth of the groove 18 is initially open. The extrusion is then bent to its final form before finally setting but after the surface is sufficiently hard to prevent the two sides of the mouth adhering to each other.

The modified form of skirting shown in FIGURE 4 is similar to that shown in FIGURES 1 and 2 and similar parts have been given the same reference numerals. The upper portion 10 is of more complex shape than that of the skirting shown in FIGURES l and 2. It comprises a relatively narrow horizontal top panel 27, an upper vertical front panel 28 of the same height as the width of the top panel 27, and a forwardly convex rib 29 f arcuate cross-section extending downwardly from the lower edge of the front panel 28 to the mouth of the groove 18. The foremost part of the rib 29 is slightly to the rear of the plane containing the lower front panel 15. The side panels 20 and 21 do not quite touch each other in this modified form of skirting. The forward edge of the upper side panel 20 joins the lower edge of the rib 29, while the forward edge of the lower side panel 21, which extends a little less far forward than the upper side strip, is connected to a forwardly and slightly downwardly inclined connecting panel 30, the forward edge of which is joined to the upper edge of the lower front panel 15. The slightly open mouth of the groove 18 is thus largely concealed by the rib 29 when the skirting is viewed from above, and the width of the mouth is less than a fifth the height of the fixing panel 19. The modified skirting is installed in the same manner as the skirting previously described, and here again the modified skirting may be such that before installation the fixing panel 19 is a short distance in front of the plane containing the rear edges of the top and bottom panels 27 and 16.

As the strips illustrated have upper and lower protruding portions 10 and 11 which are hollow they may be used to conceal electric wires, small pipes or the like.

I claim:

1. A finishing strip comprising a longitudinally extensive unitary element of self-supporting yet flexible and resilient material of substantially uniform thickness, and having first and second hollow protruding portions and a channel shaped intermediate portions between said protruding portions, the intermediate portion comprising a vertical, rearwardly disposed planar fixing panel which is at all times fiat and first and second side walls extending forwardly from the upper and lower edges of said fixing panel, the forward ends of said side walls remote from said fixing panel being normally at all times resiliently biased towards each other so that said ends normally substantially abut each other to form a substantially closed mouth between the forward ends of said side walls, said protruding portions each including a vertical, forwardly disposed panel, a pair of forwardly and outwardly diverging lip portions each interconnecting the forward end of a respective side wall with the adjacent end of a panel of the respective protruding portions, the lips defining a substantially V-shaped guiding groove for the reception of wedging means for temporarily opening the mouth between the forward ends of said side walls for the passage of fixing means therethrough, each panel of the respective protruding portions having at its end remote from said lips a portion extending rearwardly to the plane of said fixing panel and in vertically spaced relationship with respect thereto.

2. A finishing strip according to claim 1 in which the mouth is initially integrally closed, but is capable of being slit without the strip being damaged.

3. A finishing strip according to claim 1 which includes a flexible and resilient flange which projects on that side of one of the protruding portions remote from the intermediate portion.

4. A finishing strip according to claim 1 made as an extrusion of a plastics material.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 906,784 12/1908 Edeborg 52630 1,471,442 10/1923 Betz 52463 1,617,581 2/1927 Emery 52717 1,625,637 4/1927 Abel 52467 1,673,142 6/1928 Dryden 52716 1,884,440 10/1932 Welch 52716 3,105,323 10/ 1963 Esler 52716 3,273,296 9/1966 Soulon 52716 FOREIGN PATENTS 15,551 1933 Australia. 374,474 2/ 1964 Switzerland.

HENRY C. SUTHERLAND, Primary Examiner U.S. Cl. X.R. 

